16.01.2025 18:00
The former Minister of Trade, Ruhsar Pekcan's businessman husband, Hasan Pekcan, became a victim of fraudsters. Pekcan sent 1,646,210 TL to the fraudsters, who claimed that his accounts needed to be consolidated into a single account at the Central Bank for his loan application to be approved.
Hasan Pekcan, who served as the Minister of Trade in the first cabinet of the Presidential Government System and held the ministerial seat until 2021, became a target of fraudsters.
THEY TRICKED HIM WITH A LOAN APPLICATION
On January 6, 2025, Hasan Pekcan was called on his mobile phone by individuals claiming to be bank employees, using three different numbers. The fraudsters managed to deceive Pekcan by convincing him that, for the loan application to be approved, his accounts needed to be consolidated into a single account held at the Central Bank for security reasons.
SENT 1 MILLION 646 THOUSAND LIRA
Following this, Pekcan transferred a total of 1 million 646 thousand 210 TL to fraudsters named Faruk K. and Şükrü Ç. from his accounts at two different banks.
LETTERS SENT TO BANKS
According to a report by Habertürk, realizing he had been defrauded, Pekcan filed a complaint with the Beykoz Chief Public Prosecutor's Office. The prosecutor's office, which began investigating the incident, sent letters to the banks requesting that blocks be placed on the accounts of the two suspects to which the money was transferred, to identify the account holders if the money had been transferred to another account, and to send the camera footage if the money had been withdrawn.
CALL RECORDS REQUESTED
The prosecutor's office also sent a letter to Türk Telekom to determine to whom the numbers used by the fraudsters belonged. The prosecutor's office requested the call records of Pekcan's conversations with the suspects from the Information Technologies and Communications Authority (BTK) and instructed the Istanbul Cyber Crime Branch to identify the account holders and to have them detained and presented at the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.
HE WAS REMOVED FROM OFFICE AFTER THE 'DISINFECTANT' SCANDAL
It was revealed that Ruhsar Pekcan, who held the position of Minister of Trade between 2018 and 2021, had received products worth 9 million TL from institutions affiliated with the ministry through two disinfectant companies he co-owned with his wife during the coronavirus pandemic. Following the emergence of the incident, Ruhsar Pekcan was removed from office on April 21, 2021, by a presidential decree published in the Official Gazette. Hasan Pekcan's name also first came to the public's attention due to this incident.